Big Butt Will Soon Be Mooning Roosevelt Island Tram Riders and Queensboro Bridge Drivers As Gaston Lachaise Sculpture Of The Mountain Installed At Tramway Plaza In August

Image From DNA Info

Roosevelt Island residents and visitors using the Tram get ready for a GIGANTIC MOONING as you approach Tramway Plaza. That's right, a BIG BUTT in your face will greet you as you approach the Southeast Corner of 59th Street and Second Avenue. According to DNA Info:

A sculpture of a voluptuous reclining nude woman made by the late French artist Gaston Lachaise is about to grace a little park off of the former 59th Street bridge — but some wonder if the chaotic intersection is the best place for it.

The massive 1934 bronze sculpture known as "The Mountain" is slated to be installed at the Tramway Plaza on Second Avenue between East 59th and 60th Streets in August.

The location, sandwiched between the Roosevelt Island tram terminal, the mouth of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, and the busy Second Avenue wasn't the first choice by Lachaise Foundation, which oversees the artist's legacy.

They wanted to put the statue — the original version of which was cast in cement and commissioned for a big grove of pines on a rolling hill at an estate in Lenox, Mass. — in Central Park. But the bid was rejected by the Parks Department, Lachaise Foundation curator Paula Hornbostel said at a meeting of Community Board 8's parks committee Thursday....

Read the whole DNA Info article here.

The NY Post reports:

... The statue's arrival comes at a time when one out of four New Yorkers is considered obese. And some are raising questions about the heft of the piece.

"This is a very busy plaza and a big transportation hub, and this creates pedestrian and safety-flow issues," Upper East Sider Michele Birnbaum said...

Here is Roosevelt Island Tramway Plaza on Second Avenue between 59 and 60th Street across the street from the Queensboro Bridge.


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DNA Info adds:

... The massive sculpture of Lachaise's wife spans nearly nine feet across and will be lifted five feet off the ground on pillars in the park's southeast corner.

Elevating it will allow the sculpture to be viewed not only by pedestrians passing through the busy thoroughfare along Second Avenue between East 59th and 60th streets where the Roosevelt Island tram terminal is, as well as make it visible to drivers coming off the bridge toward Second Avenue or 59th Street, proponents said.

"As you drive south [along Second Avenue] you'll see more and more of her and hopefully not crash," Hornbostel joked...

UPDATE 7/15 -DNA Info has more on the how the Tramway Plaza's pigeon population may greet the arrival of  The Mountain.